Chapter 274 Inheritance

"What are you rummaging through? What good stuff are you so reluctant to give up?"

Zheng Shu leaned against the door with a look of disgust, grimacing at Xie Chengzhi.

"Do you need me to get you a spoon?"

Xie Chengzhi ignored her and just kept looking down at the food. When he saw the dried sweet potato roots at the bottom of the bowl, he realized he had misread it.

Xie Chengzhi said, "Damn it, I thought it was roast duck."

He stood up and kicked the sticky stuff on the ground.

"Go boil some hot water for me, I want to take a bath."

Zheng Shu looked at Xie Chengzhi, her eyes lowered, and said, "Is all you're thinking about is roast duck?"

"I can smell roast duck..."

Xie Chengzhi narrowed his eyes, looking at her with an unfriendly expression: "Have you been cheating on me with someone else?"

"Good? What good food can I possibly get? Xie Chengzhi, why don't you open your tiny, squinty-slit eyes and take a look? Can you find even a single penny in this whole house, inside and out?"

"Hasn't all the money in the house been spent by you on those vixens outside?"

"That's a whopping 20,000 taels of silver! You didn't leave a single penny for Ying Shou and Lu Rong; you spent it all on those sluts in the brothel."

"Now you're asking me if I stole food? Xie Chengzhi, do you even have any shame?! You should have been crippled by the old lady back then. Even being a cripple would have been better than this disgusting, lifeless corpse you are now!"

"If you bastard utter another word, I'll beat you to death."

"Go ahead and hit me, hit me if you dare, then kill me."

Xie Chengzhi raised his hand, but before it could land, Zheng Shu rushed over and began tearing at his hair and clothes.

Before long, Xie Chengzhi was disheveled and in a sorry state.

"You shrew, how could my Xie family have married such a shrew!"

Having been doused with cold water and having lain outside the shop at Jixia Manor for quite some time earlier, Xie Chengzhi was now somewhat disoriented and shivering from the cold.

His teeth chattered, and he stammered, "Go and boil some hot water for me; I want to take a bath."

"No firewood."

"you……"

Xie Chengzhi left with a curt "Fine, fine," and slammed the door shut in anger.

"Mother……"

Xie Lurong stood outside, her voice barely audible, "My father doesn't look well. Is he sick?"

"Even if he dies from illness, it has nothing to do with you. Come and eat."

Zheng Shu swung her arm and pulled Xie Lurong back into the room, then pushed Xie Yingshou into the room and slammed the door shut.

"eat."

She turned around, took out a roast duck from Zuixianglou from the cabinet, and also took out rice and a bowl of braised pork. She then took the two children to another room to continue their meal.

"His nose is quite sharp; he can even smell the roast duck from Zuixianglou."

Zheng Shu tore off a piece of roast duck leg and handed it to Xie Yingshou, then looked up at Xie Lurong and said, "What are you looking at? You're going to marry into a family with a different surname in the future, so you can't eat this."

"But you can eat this duck head."

Xie Yingshou took a big bite of the roasted duck leg, his mouth dripping with oil.

Xie Lurong looked down at the dishes on the table and murmured, "Mother, aren't we being a little... "

"You brat, if there's food, eat it; if not, go out and starve."

Upon hearing this, Xie Yingshou quickly reached out and pinched Xie Lurong's arm.

Previously, Zheng Shu had secretly treated them to good food, but Xie Yingshou let it slip. From that day on, Zheng Shu treated them to dried vegetable porridge for half a month.

Xie Yingshou's eyes gleamed with envy after eating so much.

Although he was young, he understood the principle that disobedience meant no meat to eat, so he didn't say another word to Xie Chengzhi.

Seeing her mother and younger brother like this, Xie Lurong didn't dare to say anything else and could only eat her meal in silence.

The family's money had indeed been squandered by the father, and the money the mother had now was the dowry left to her by the old lady before she passed away.

When the first and second wives divided the family property, Xie Lurong didn't know what to do with her belongings, so she could only tell Zheng Shu about it.

The things the old lady left for her were kept in the public hall, so Xie Lurong didn't dare to go and retrieve them alone.

After Zheng Shu found out, she kept the matter quiet and never mentioned it again.

It wasn't until Xie Chengzhi squandered all the family's wealth in just a few months, leaving the mother and her two daughters without food, that Zheng Shucai took her to find Hua Nanzhi.

Hua Nanzhi had no reason to stop them from taking away the old lady's belongings.

It was only when they opened the wooden box that they realized that those things, supposedly intended as Xie Lurong's dowry, were actually meant for Xie Chengzhi.

The shop has two rooms, not big, but enough to last a lifetime.

When Zheng Shu saw the two shops, she remembered that Xie Chengzhi had asked the old lady for them when she first got married, but the old lady refused.

"Hmph, no matter how unfilial he is, he is still the old lady's son. Even if she looks down on him, she's afraid he'll have a hard life in the future."

Zheng Shu looked through it and found two more sets of jewelry inside.

"See? The old lady says she likes you, but the things she leaves you are all worthless."

"Do you know why the old lady gave the things to you instead of leaving them for me and Yingshou?"

Xie Lurong shook her head.

She didn't actually believe what Zheng Shu said.

She still remembered what her grandmother looked like before she passed away. Her grandmother said with great affection that this was left for her, unlike what her mother had said...

Zheng Shu weighed the few household items for young women on her fingertips one by one, and clicked her tongue, saying, "They're so light, you can keep them, but don't let your father know. If he finds out, you might have to get married bald in the future."

Besides the two shops and jewelry, there were also five thousand taels of silver.

Zheng Shu looked down and casually pulled out a thousand taels of silver notes and handed them to Xie Lurong: "I will not take care of your dowry from now on. I can't afford to take care of it even if I wanted to."

"Take this thousand taels; your living expenses will come from here. As for these two shops..."

She stared down at the sales contract in her hand for a long, long time, so long that Xie Lurong thought her mother was about to put it into her bosom when Zheng Shu reached out her hand.

"You and Ying Shou each have your own room. Keep your belongings safe. If anyone takes or robs them, don't come looking for me."

Xie Lurong nodded and tucked the shop deed into her sleeve.

"The old lady gave you these things because she knew your character. You are a filial son and won't watch your father fall on hard times. With these things in your hands, your father won't squander them all at once."

“If your father had enough to eat and drink, you wouldn’t take out the money. But if your father were so destitute that he was struggling to make ends meet, you wouldn’t watch him beg for food.”

"The old lady was cunning; she was still thinking about your spendthrift father even on her deathbed."

For some reason, Xie Lurong remembered what her mother had told her.

She was indeed timid and cowardly, but also filial.

Xie Lurong had to admit that her grandmother was very good at judging people.

Thinking of Xie Chengzhi's pale face and sickly appearance, Xie Lurong was worried and went to find him after finishing her meal...